1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a lobster-like or crab leg-like food product which is made of a fish meat paste product such as Kamaboko (a fish meat paste product popular in Japan) and has a taste, shape and color guite similar to the meat in the abdomen of real lobster or in the cheliped (chela leg) or the ambulatory leg of real crab.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Crab leg meat imitation products have hitherto proposed which are produced by bundling fibrous fine cut pieces of a fish meat paste product or by mixing said fibrous fine cut pieces with a pasty ground fish meat followed by heat-coagulation. Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open Nos. 11690/1984 and 38787/1984 propose various simulated crab leg products including not only a muscle imitation part but also an outer shell imitation part.
However, the above mentioned simulated crab leg products have outer appearance of crab leg and therefore no special consideration has been paid to the fact that a taste and texture are greatly influenced by not only senses of taste, smell and touch but also sense of sight.
The crab leg imitation food product disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 11690/1984 uses the ambulatory leg shell of real crab. Therefore, this imitation food product contains a non-edible portion. Moreover, the structure of the crab ambulatory leg meat imitation part in this crab leg imitation food products is entirely different from the muscle fiber structure in real crab ambulatory leg, and therefore said imitation food product has a taste and texture guite distant from those specific to the crab ambulatory leg in respect to senses of sight and touch.
The crab leg imitation food product disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 38787/184 has a shape of crab cheliped consisting of ductylus (movable finger) and propodus (pulm) and contains an edible part therein. Said edible part is composed by mixing fibrous fine cut pieces of a fish meat paste product with a pasty ground fish meat. Therefore, there exists no directiveness of fibrous fine cut pieces, resulting in a taste and texture, sense of touch, and shape of the end portion thereof which, when eaten, are rather different from those of real crab cheliped.
Further there exists no lobster-like food product which copies the outer appearance, taste, texture, etc. of a crayfish, American lobster and the like which are known genericically as a lobster.